“I see you,” he said.
He tucked a stubborn hank of hair behind his ear while running his gaze over my body.
“I feel you,” he continued, placing one palm on my forehead.
Tanner stroked my face and the front of my throat, squeezed gently, and smiled. He placed his palm on my sternum, spread his fingers, and pressed down, all the while watching me, then ran the same hand over my ribs side to side, into the curves of my waist and over my belly. His thumb ended up hidden in the patch of crinkly hairs nestled against his knee. He backed off enough he could explore my clit.
I moaned, tried to show him the movement I most enjoyed, especially when I was pleasuring myself. He grinned at me and shifted his body until his nose was buried where his thumb had been.
He inhaled deeply, eyes closed, and said, “I smell you.”
Tanner separated a path for his tongue and licked me.
“And now I want to taste you.”
I reached my hand to part my own lips further and came up onto my elbows. “I’d like to watch.”
His grin was the good kind of wicked, promising trouble ahead if I didn’t do as he wanted, which was spread my legs enough to accommodate his shoulders. I bent my knees slightly, pressed my heels into the mattress, and gave him the go-ahead to explore.
I didn’t know I liked to watch a lover licking me, to see my reactions to his giving me pleasure mirrored on his face. To see my juices streak his nose and cheeks and react to the pinch of pain as he gripped the fleshy part of my thighs to lift me higher.
My arms gave out. I closed my eyes, fumbled for a hold in the headboard’s spindle frame, and let go into a world of pure sensation.
Let go, Calli. Let go.
The voice in my head was all mine. I reaffirmed my two-fisted grip on the rounded wood, gave in to the rhythm of Tanner’s tongue and the fingers he’d teased inside me. I lifted a little and sank, reveling in how wet I’d become.
Tanner withdrew most of his first two fingers, introduced a third, and within a few hard strokes, I came, riding wave after wave until it hurt to have him inside me.
Blood flow returned to my hands and arms, once I let go of the bedframe. I pressed my fingertips to the top of Tanner’s head and nudged him aside so I could see better. He swiped his mouth across my inner thigh, wiped his face with the clean sheet, and pounced, straddling me as he had earlier.
“You taste like everything I’ve ever wanted,” he whispered.
Flecks of gold, the ones I’d seen the day we’d met, returned to light amber irises and tips of mussed hair. Tanner stood on his knees, grabbed mine, and folded my legs in toward my chest. He hugged my bent legs, lowered his head to kiss wherever he could reach from my knees to my ankles, and took a playful swat at my ass.
He looked so pleased and happy, and I could almost ignore the external reminders of what happened between him and the Apple Witch.
Let it go, Calli. Let it go. He’s here, with you, because this is what he wants.
I listened to myself. Sometimes, I was pretty smart.
“Do you think you taste like everything I’ve ever wanted?” I asked, letting the tip of my tongue fan against my upper lip. I even batted my eyelashes, something I had never consciously done in front of a man. In front of a mirror, yes, but never a man.
“Only one way to find out.” Tanner made no move to shift positions until he reached over to my desk and lit up my phone. “We have about ninety minutes to see if I meet with your taste buds’ approval.”
“Does that give us time to clean up and air out the room? Because you smell like sex, Tanner.”
“I smell like your sex, Calliope.” He grinned, and whatever blemishes Jessamyne might have left on his warm skin faded. All I saw was an aroused, eager, playful man.
I pushed against his hands and rolled onto my belly, intending to get up and make room for him, but he lowered himself onto my back. Reaching between us, he adjusted his cock. My ass still stung from his gentle smack.
“It’s a little hard for me to taste you from here.” My voice was muffled by a pillow, which helped absorb my squeals when Tanner began to nip at the skin around my ribs and growl.
I play-fought by lifting my hips and trying to wiggle away, but that got him harder. I turned my head, my hair covering my face and getting in my mouth.
“Tanner. I like the feel of having you behind me,” I added, “but I’m not on any kind of birth control and you’re not wearing a condom and I’m afraid of going further with you than I’m ready for.”
He pushed away and rested his forehead between my shoulder blades.
“I’m sorry.” He sat on his heels, giving me room to roll onto my back and face him. The glow in his eyes was cooling. My druid was slipping away when all I wanted was to keep playing until both of us were as sated as we could be, given the multitude of constraints. I curled up and rested my palm over his heart.
“Is this okay?” I asked.
He stared at me, nodded.
I wiggled out from between his legs and placed both hands on his chest.
